The Hook Sweep

I found myself with a few guys standing up in my guard last night during sparring sessions. There are a couple of sweeps that I’ve tried from this position—namely, the omoplata sweep and Mamazinho’s push sweep. And I need to incorporate Mamazinho’s pull sweep more to account for those instances in which the guy on top is leaning far forward—which has often been the case. With this pull sweep, I need to remember to control the elbows before lifting the guy up with my feet on his hips

Another variation off of Mamazinho’s push sweep is the hook sweep. I was watching a Google Video of Rener and Ryron Gracie showing how this sweep is done. The key detail is, first, you want the guy’s weight to be back—not leaning too far over you. What you do is put a foot in the hip and the other foot hooking behind the knee on the other side. Once you are in that position, reach down on the same side as the foot-in-hip and grab the guy’s ankle on that side.

Push against the hip. Pull on the ankle. Pull with the hook.

Note: Rener and Ryron also make an interesting point about side control. They say that you don’t want to be on your knees, which I suspect is responsible for both getting your hips too high in the air AND for not putting the full weight on the guy. Since I spend a lot of time in side control when on top, that’s something worth remembering the next time I’m trying to keep a guy down.